Living in Nigeria

Nigeria is the heavyweight of the region, and for an outsider the draw is the work itself: English runs the workplace, and energy, IT, and finance all hold real openings for someone arriving from elsewhere. The catch is the money. Pay falls at the bottom of the global scale and everyday prices are low to match, but the two sit close enough that a salary tends to leave nothing once a typical life is paid for, even with tax taking only a modest share. The opportunity here is the career rather than what you save from it.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has a diaspora of about 2.1M that has expanded fast — up 54% over the past decade. Unlike most of its neighbors' migration, this one reaches well beyond the region: the largest communities are in the United States (565.1K) and the United Kingdom (324K). Within Africa, Nigeria is itself a magnet, drawing 1.3M foreign-born residents from Benin, Ghana, and Mali.